Waiting, apparently, until his auditor became absorbed in his contemplation of the gem, the Sepoy at last began with the same even modulations which characterized his narrative at the outset:
“No sooner had Ram Lal disappeared through the curtains than the curious apathy of the prince vanished and was replaced by a demeanor of perplexed concentration in the direction pursued by the merchant.
“The prince had listened without comment or interruption during the recital of the narrator, his eyes fixed, the while, upon the brilliant.
“He did not know of the weird gestures of the speaker, nor had he seen the wonderful transformation of the man.
“Consequently he was startled for the moment to contemplate the blank so recently filled by Ram Lal.
“The sapphire, however, remained. That, at least, was real, and replacing it in the box, he proceeded, with a degree of absent preoccupation, to the courtyard, and presently found himself gazing aimlessly in the fountain basin.
“Curiously enough, it had not occurred to the prince to resent the assured attitude of the merchant, or to speculate upon the insinuating suggestions of complicity which the latter had managed to lodge in the consciousness of his august auditor.
“Nor did he feel outraged at the intrusion of the dangerous alternative proposed by the audacious Ram Lal.
“He appeared to be seduced by the sapphire and fascinated by the recital.
“Slowly he retraced the byways of the strange episode until he resumed, with singular precision of memory, the words of the merchant, which explained the presence of the gem: